Category: Archaeology of Poland

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The Stone Cold Cemeteries of Mazovia and Podlachia. Who Was Buried in the Stone-Setting Graves?

Early medieval cemeteries with graves enclosed in stone structures are among the most distinctive features of the archaeological landscape of Mazovia and Podlachia. These cemeteries are distinguished from other necropolises of this period by the presence of large stone structures surrounding the burials, the regular arrangement of graves, and a specific funeral rite, the origins and significance of which have been the subject of research for many years. Interdisciplinary research, including anthropological, archaeogenetic, and isotopic analyses, has opened up new interpretive possibilities through recent studies of two cemeteries. Their findings allow us to examine not only the form of the burials themselves but also the origin, mobility, diet, and social structure of the individuals buried there.

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Amber mystery from Iron Age Mazovia, PL

Amber mystery from Iron Age Mazovia, PL

Archaeological research conducted since the 1960s in western Mazovia, PL, has shown that this region was once far more than merely a tranquil inland area. It was here that at the dawn of Antiquity a vast iron-production centre operated, today known as the Mazovian Center of Metallurgy. The scale of metallurgical activity carried out in Mazovia was truly remarkable. Iron production, however, was not the only pillar of the economy at that time.

Alongside the relics of metallurgical craft, archaeologists discovered something much more surprising. The remains of… amber workshops! And no, these were not just some isolated finds, but entire production complexes! Finished ornaments, raw lumps, production waste – all of them show that amberworking in Mazovia was carried out on a truly massive scale. However, these finds generate more questions than answers. There are no natural amber deposits in this area. There is also no data indicating its strong cultural exploitation in this region.

So where did it come from and why did it appear here?

Prof. Adam Cieśliński from the Faculty of Archaeology of the University of Warsaw and Dr Marcin Woźniak from the Museum of Ancient Masovian Metallurgy in Pruszków are trying to answer these questions. They presented some of their latest findings in the publication ‘Amber workshops in central Poland during the Roman Period’. Below you will find a short overview!

You can read this article in 12 minutes!

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RADOGOST: Where archaeological documentation goes so it doesn’t disappear

What happens to documentation after the field season ends? RADOGOST helps store and share archaeological data so it can be found, understood, and reused.

Imagine a classic scenario: fieldwork, hundreds of photos, RTK GPS files, sketches, context descriptions, 3D models, artefact tables, analytical notes. Then “after the season”, when archaeologists return home and sit down at desks and in libraries, everything lands on a hard drive. The data gets sorted and usually ends up in folders named “NEW”, “FINAL”, “FINAL_2”… and starts living a life of its own. After a year, no one remembers which file is current. After five years, no one knows whose coordinates those were, what the methodology was, or whether it’s even allowed to show it to anyone.

Now consider another perspective: science based on verification, re-analysis, and data reuse. This is exactly where RADOGOST comes in.

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Beetle for adorment. A unique find from the cremation cemetery in Domasław.

Jewelry made from both organic and inorganic materials is one of the earliest and most popular material evidence of human activity and cultural development discovered at archaeological sites around the world. When we hear the word jewelry, we think of items made from precious metals, gemstones, or shells. But it turns out that past humans made decorations using a surprisingly wide range of materials. During research on burials from the extensive Lusatian culture necropolis in Domasław in Lower Silesia, Polish scientists found evidence of the deliberate deposition of chitinous beetle shells strung on a blade of grass in a grave. This unique discovery sheds new light on the culture of the communities inhabiting Lower Silesia in the early Iron Age.

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Prehistoric Amber Ornaments from the Żuławy Wiślane, Northern Poland: A Raw Material Perspective

Because of its beauty and unique properties, amber has fascinated people for thousands of years. With the holiday season now officially underway and many of us likely to spend at least a moment on the marine coast, today’s article focuses on the role amber played among communities living in the particular area of northern Poland during the Late Neolithic period. We will explore how its selection – based on colour, transparency, and structure – reflected the aesthetic and technological preferences of prehistoric craftspeople and users. These observations will then be compared with contemporary Polish trends in jewellery, aiming to highlight some subtle analogies between the past and the present. Join us on this fascinating journey through time, aesthetics, and technique, which proves that the choice of amber was never accidental. The inspiration for this article comes from recent research on some of the products from an amber workshop that existed around 4,500 years ago in the Żuławy Wiślane region, published by researchers from the Faculty of Archaeology at the University of Warsaw and the Museum of Earth in Warsaw Polish Academy of Sciences, in the journal Praehistorische Zeitschrift.

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Invisible traces of human presence. Stories from Polish caves

Caves have been an object of human fascination since the dawn of time. These mysterious, closed spaces served various functions in the past – from temporary shelters or flint workshops to places of burial or worship. Human history is recorded here in long stratigraphic sequences, with each layer being a part of a long-forgotten story. We try to read these stories and reconstruct the lives of ancient people. Usually, we use for this purpose artefacts: objects left or lost by the former inhabitants of the caves or by people visiting them. Sometimes our reconstruction is not clear – there are too few objects or they are too well hidden. However, every human activity leaves behind something more than artefacts. It leaves behind chemical traces. We just need to learn to read them properly.

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Bramka Rockshelter – what the last European hunters did in a cave

I turn a tiny flint fragment in my hands. I can see that one of its sides was very accurately shaped with small percussions in order to make a triangular tool. It is slightly more than a centimetre long. I need to use a magnifying glass to see its details. Who made it? When? Was it made by the last European hunters? Why did they leave it in a cave?

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Polish computer application in archaeology

From April 2nd to April 6th, 2023, the 50th International Conference on Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology was held in Amsterdam. Polish archaeology was represented by a strong interdisciplinary group, which prepared two sessions and presented 10 presentations and 2 posters.

Photogrammetric model of a barrow during excavation with markings showing the location of various monuments
by J. Stępnik

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